


Guns in the Temple

by ishafel



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-11
Updated: 2011-03-11
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishafel/pseuds/ishafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They give away, one by one, the things they fought so hard to keep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guns in the Temple

They give away, one by one, the things they fought so hard to keep. Most of them don't even notice anything is missing unless it affects them personally. Lee is as guilty of it as the rest of them; it's not that he isn't bothered by the whole abortion issue, but he has a thousand other things to think about, and by the time he has time it isn't an issue--may never be an issue again. The first time he really does notice, it's because he's just written Shark and Bullet up for fraternization. He isn't expecting to hear anything more about it. Even Tigh doesn't really enforce the regs like he used to, not since New Caprica. Lee only reports it because they're so obnoxious the other pilots are threatening to mutiny if he doesn't.

So he's surprised when Tigh takes him aside and asks him to rethink reporting it. "Why?" he asks. "I just want them to stop doing it in the showers."

Tigh shakes his head. "Animals, you lot," he says. "It was different when your father and I were flying."

"Gods," Lee says, appalled. "I hope so." This is not something he wants to think about.

But the smile drops away from the corner of Tigh's mouth, or maybe it was never there at all. "Lee," he says. "You know they've made homosexual relations illegal? At the very least, they'll lose their commissions."

Lee takes the report out of the colonel's hand and tears it in half. "No," he says. "I didn't know. When did this--."

That night, he looks it up. Tigh's right. The law's been in place three months. This is the first he's heard of it. There aren't many openly gay couples on Galactica; in fact he isn't sure he can think of any. The Fleet's position has always been closer to benign ignorance than general acceptance.

The next day Shark flies his Viper into an asteroid during a routine training run, and the day after that the fleet runs suddenly, desperately short of food, and Lee's sending pilots into the middle of a nuclear storm. Civil rights suddenly seem less important than simple survival. It isn't that he agrees with the Council, it's that he doesn't have time to disagree. And maybe--maybe he actually understands, a little. They need for babies to be born. Eighteen years, that was the timeline Baltar gave them.

If he's honest with himself, he knew all along. Not about the little things the Council of Twelve were responsible for, and not about the specifics. But he knew that his father and Roslin and Zarek, individually and collectively, had been doing things he wouldn't like, things he knows are wrong. He knew, and he'd turned a blind eye, because he was tired of fighting a war on two fronts.

It isn't only abortion, and it isn't gay rights. It's the vigilante justice that Zarek ordered after New Caprica, that his father couldn't stop, that Roslin wouldn't punish. It's Boomer bleeding to death in a hallway while crowds cheer her killer. It's the officers of the Pegasus lining up to rape a woman. It's suicide bombs, stolen children, his own voice proposing genocide. It's Baltar, whom no one at all will defend.

This is no longer a war for the righteous. This is not justice but vengeance, not democracy but tyranny. He goes down to the hangar deck and leans against his Viper, pressing his cheek against its cool metal skin. He feels like a knight of old, saying goodbye to his steed. If he does this, his father will take his wings. If he doesn't, he'll be as much a traitor as Baltar ever was. He's Lee Adama, Captain Apollo, and he made the decision a long time ago, to fight only on his own terms, only for what he believes in. This is no different, except that he'll have to fight alone this time.


End file.
